An electronic camera for converting a taken image into digital data is known. In this kind of the electronic camera, the image is taken by an image sensor of a CCD, a CMOS and so forth, and the converted digital data is stored in a memory. The rear of the electronic camera is provided with a display panel of a liquid-crystal display and so forth to display the taken image. At a shooting time, the taken image is displayed on the display panel as a through image. At a reproduction time, the taken image read out of the memory is reproduced on the display panel.
In recent years, the electronic camera has been downsized and a thickness thereof has been reduced. In contrast, the display panel has been enlarged for the purpose of improving visibility and for aggressively display an image. As the display panel becomes large, an area for occupying the back of the camera body inevitably increases. Consequently, a portion for gripping the camera body is relatively reduced. In this case, when it is necessary to stably hold the camera body at the shooting time, a hand gripping the camera body overlaps the display panel and a part of the display panel is covered.
In view of this, there is a proposed camera (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-289484, for instance) in which the taken image is displayed on the entire display panel at the reproduction time and is reduced to a predetermined size at the shooting time to form a blank area without displaying the taken image on the grip portion. Moreover, in this camera, the display panel is provided with a touch sensor to work the blank area as an operating portion of the camera.
In the meantime, a size of a hand for gripping the camera body is different every shooter. Further, a position of each finger is different every shooter when gripping the camera body. In spite of this, the blank area of the device described in the above-noted Publication No. 11-289484 has fixed dimensions. For some shooters, the blank area is large. In such a case, the shooter feels dissatisfaction that a size of the displayed image is small. In contrast, for some shooters, the blank area is small. In this case, there arise problems in that it is difficult to grasp the camera body and the finger overlaps the displayed image.